Acceptance of Agreement

You agree to the terms and conditions outlined in this Terms of Service Agreement ("Agreement") with respect to our Website and Service. This Agreement constitutes the entire and only agreement between ChessCube and yourself, and supersedes all prior or other agreements with respect to the Service, the content, products or services provided by or through the Service, and the subject matter of this Agreement.

ChessCube may amend this Agreement from time to time without specific notice. The most recent Agreement will be posted on the Website. ChessCube may communicate any amendments to this agreement via the ChessCube blog or email communications with registered users. Your continued access of the Website or use of the Service constitutes an acceptance of any amendments contained within the Agreement.

Copyright

The content, organization of materials, graphics, logos, chess fonts, chess piece designs, other design, compilation, magnetic translation, digital conversion, data structures and other matters related to the Service are protected under applicable copyrights, trademarks and other proprietary (including but not limited to intellectual property) rights.

The replication, redistribution, use, or publication by you of any of the above-mentioned materials, or any part of the Service, except as provided for by Section 4 below, is strictly prohibited.

The posting of information or materials on the Service confers copyright title to the Website and does not constitute a waiver of any rights or title in such information and materials.

Some of the content on the Service is the copyrighted work of third parties.

Service Marks

"ChessCube.com" and other related marks are the trademarks of, and proprietary to, ChessCube (Pty) Ltd. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Live and Windows Media are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation; ICQ is a trademark of ICQ, Inc.; Yahoo! is a trademark of Yahoo! Inc.; Google, Gmail and GoogleTalk are trademarks of Google, Inc.; America Online, AOL, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), are service marks of AOL Time Warner; Apple, Mac, Macintosh, and QuickTime are trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc.; Adobe, Acrobat, Acrobat Reader, Adobe PDF, Flash, Macromedia, Shockwave are trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated; Facebook is a trademark of Facebook; other product and company names mentioned via the Service are the trademarks of their respective owners.

A U.S. federal trademark registration was filed for WARZONE CHESS. Trademark information here.

Limited License; Permitted Uses

You are granted a non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to:

Access and use the Service strictly in accordance with this Agreement;

Use the Service solely for internal, personal, non-commercial purposes; and

Print out discrete information from the Service solely for internal, personal, non-commercial purposes and provided that you maintain all copyright and other policies contained therein. No printout or electronic version of any part of the Service or its contents may be used by you in any litigation or arbitration matter whatsoever under any circumstance.

Restrictions and Prohibitions on Use

Your license for access and use of the Website and Service and any information, materials or documents (collectively defined as Content and Materials) therein are subject to the following restrictions and prohibitions on use:

You may not:

copy, print (except for the express limited purpose permitted by Section 4 above), republish, display, distribute, transmit, sell, rent, lease, loan or otherwise make available in any form or by any means all or any portion of the Service or any Content and Materials retrieved therefrom;

use any assistive technology, such as a computer program, during chess matches.

use the Service or any materials obtained from the Service to develop, of as a component of, any information, storage and retrieval system, database, information base, or similar resource (in any media now existing or hereafter developed), that is offered for commercial distribution of any kind, including through sale, license, lease, rental, subscription, or any other commercial distribution mechanism;

create compilations or derivative works of any Content and Materials from the Service;

use any Content and Materials from the Service in any manner that may infringe any copyright, intellectual property right, proprietary right, or property right of us or any third parties;

remove, change or obscure any copyright notice or other proprietary notice or terms of use contained in the Service;

make any portion of the Service available through any timesharing system, service bureau, the Internet or any other technology now existing or developed in the future;

remove, decompile, disassemble or reverse engineer any Service software or use any network monitoring or discovery software to determine the Service architecture;

use any automatic or manual process to harvest information from the Service;

use the Service for the purpose of gathering information for or transmitting (1) unsolicited commercial email; (2) email that makes use of headers, invalid or nonexistent domain names, or other means of deceptive addressing; and (3) unsolicited telephone calls, SMS messages, MMS messages, or facsimile transmissions;

use the Service in a manner that violates any law regulating email, facsimile transmissions or telephone solicitations; and

export or re-export the Service or any portion thereof, or any software available on or through the Service, in violation of the export control laws or regulations of the Republic of South Africa.

Purchase Terms

Purchases of any virtual currency or virtual items sold on our site are purchases of a limited non-transferable, revocable license. The license may be terminated immediately if your account is terminated for any reason, in ChessCube’s sole and absolute discretion, or if ChessCube discontinues providing the Services.

You agree that all purchases of virtual currency or virtual items sold on our site are final. No refunds will be given, except in our sole and absolute discretion. You agree that virtual currency or other virtual items will be forfeited if your account is terminated for any reason, in ChessCube’s sole and absolute discretion, or if ChessCube discontinues providing the services on the site. You agree that the purchase of virtual currency or virtual items sold on the site is the purchase of a limited, non-transferable, revocable license and that you have no property interest in the virtual currency or virtual items.

In Case of Billing Error: If you were charged for items you did not purchase, or you did not receive the items you purchased, or if you were charged an incorrect amount, you may request a refund or correction by asking a question via ChessCube’s customer service email using [email protected].

Cubit Usage

ChessCube reserves the right to deduct a game fee of 15 Cubits from your existing Cubit balance when playing any non-tournament game. The entry fee shown for Prize Games is in addition to this base 15-Cubit game fee. Tournament games are not currently charged the additional 15 Cubits. ChessCube VIP members are exempt from this charge.

Cubit Expiry

ChessCube reserves the right to expire a portion of your Cubit balance if no transaction activity is detected on your account. Transaction activity is defined as any action that uses Cubits, such as buying an item in our store, playing a wagering game or entering a non-free tournament. The following expiry rules apply to Cubit inactivity:

Every 14 days we will deduct 10% of your free Cubits on a straight-line basis (i.e. the same amount every 14 days if you continue to stay inactive). Free Cubits include daily allowances, leaderboard prizes or promotional giveaways.

Every 28 days we will deduct 10% of your won Cubits on a straight-line basis (i.e. the same amount every 28 days if you continue to stay inactive). Won Cubits include wagered winnings and tournament prizes.

After 308 days of inactivity (i.e. 28 days after your won Cubits have expired completely) we will start expiring your purchased Cubits. Every 28 days we will deduct 10% of your purchased Cubits on a straight-line basis (i.e. the same amount every 28 days if you continue to stay inactive).

To avoid expiry login to ChessCube and use any part of your Cubits. You can buy an item in our store, play a wagering game or enter a tournament. This will ensure that you keep all your Cubits.

No Legal Advice or Attorney-Client Relationship

Information contained on or made available through the Service is not intended to and does not constitute legal advice, recommendations, mediation or counseling under any circumstance and no attorney-client relationship is formed. We do not warrant or guarantee the accurateness, completeness, adequacy or currency of the information contained in or linked to the Service. Your use of information on the Website or via the Service or materials linked to the Website or Service is entirely at your own risk. We are not a law firm and the Service is not a lawyer referral service.

Linking to the Service

You may provide links to the Website, provided:

that you do not remove or obscure, by framing or otherwise, advertisements, the copyright notice, or other notices on the Website;

your Service does not engage in illegal or pornographic activities, and

you discontinue providing links to the Website immediately upon request by us.

Advertisers

The Service may contain advertising and sponsorships. Advertisers and sponsors are responsible for ensuring that material submitted for inclusion through the Service is accurate and complies with applicable laws. We are not responsible for the illegality or any error, inaccuracy or problem in the advertiser's or sponsor's materials.

Registration

Certain sections of, or offerings from, the Service may require you to register. If registration is requested, you agree to provide us with accurate, complete registration information. Your registration must be done using your real name and accurate information. Each registration is for your personal use only and not on behalf of any other person or entity. We do not permit:

any other person using the registered sections under your name; or

access through a single name being made available to multiple users on a network. You are responsible for preventing such unauthorized use.

You must ensure that your account password is kept secret at all times. We accept no liability for any losses you may incur as a result of unauthorized use of your account, whether fraudulent or otherwise.

Username renaming / Deleting accounts

Accounts cannot be renamed or deleted. This is non-negotiable, and will not be done under any circumstances. Accounts are linked to games played and to various reports (including abuse reports) and we cannot remove your name from these records for technical and administrative reasons.
If you no longer want to use your account, you can remove your personal details from the account while online (Click on your avatar (top right) -> edit profile -> my account) and simply stop logging in.
If you want to change your username, you can use your email details for the new username once you have removed them.
If you want to delete your account to stop receiving emails from ChessCube, you can change your settings to stop all email notifications (click on your name (top right) -> settings -> email notifications); you do not have to remove your email details.

Errors, Corrections and Changes

We do not represent or warrant that the Service will be error-free, free of viruses or other harmful components, or that defects will be corrected. We do not represent or warrant that the information available on or through the Service will be correct, accurate, timely or otherwise reliable. We may make changes to the features, functionality or content of the Service at any time. We reserve the right in our sole discretion to edit or delete any documents, information or other content appearing via the Service.

Third Party Content

Third party content may appear via the Service or may be accessible via links from the Website. We are not responsible for and assume no liability for any mistakes, misstatements of law, defamation, omissions, falsehood, obscenity, pornography or profanity in the statements, opinions, representations or any other form of content on the Service. You understand that the information and opinions in the third party content represent solely the thoughts of the author and is neither endorsed by nor does it necessarily reflect our belief.

Links to other Web Services

The Website contains links to other sites. We are not responsible for the content, accuracy or opinions express in such sites, and such sites are not investigated, monitored or checked for accuracy or completeness by us. Inclusion of any linked site on our Website does not imply approval or endorsement of the linked site by us. If you decide to leave our Website and access these third-party sites, you do so at your own risk.

Unlawful Activity

We reserve the right to investigate complaints or reported violations of this Agreement and to take any action we deem appropriate, including but not limited to reporting any suspected unlawful activity to law enforcement officials, regulators, or other third parties and disclosing any information necessary or appropriate to such persons or entities relating to your profile, email addresses, usage history, posted materials, IP addresses and traffic information.

Indemnification

You agree to indemnify, defend and hold us and our partners, agents, officers, directors, employees, subcontractors, successors, assigns, third party suppliers of information and documents, attorneys, advertisers, product and service providers, and affiliates (collectively, "Affiliated Parties") harmless from any liability, loss, claim and expense, including reasonable attorney's fees, related to your violation of this Agreement or use of the Service.

Nontransferable

Your right to use the Service is not transferable or assignable. Any password or right given to you to obtain information or documents is not transferable or assignable.

Disclaimer

THE INFORMATION, CONTENT AND DOCUMENTS AVAILABLE FROM OR THROUGH THE SERVICE ARE PROVIDED "AS-IS," "AS AVAILABLE," WITH ALL FAULTS, AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, ARE DISCLAIMED (INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE DISCLAIMER OF ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE). THE INFORMATION AND SERVICES MAY CONTAIN BUGS, ERRORS, PROBLEMS OR OTHER LIMITATIONS. WE AND OUR AFFILIATED PARTIES HAVE NO LIABILITY WHATSOEVER FOR YOUR USE OF ANY INFORMATION OR SERVICE, EXCEPT AS PROVIDED IN SECTION 17(b). IN PARTICULAR, BUT NOT AS A LIMITATION THEREOF, WE AND OUR AFFILIATED PARTIES ARE NOT LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF BUSINESS, LOSS OF PROFITS, LITIGATION, OR THE LIKE), WHETHER BASED ON BREACH OF CONTRACT, BREACH OF WARRANTY, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), PRODUCT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. THE NEGATION AND LIMITATION OF DAMAGES SET FORTH ABOVE ARE FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS OF THE BASIS OF THE BARGAIN BETWEEN US AND YOU. THIS SERVICE AND THE PRODUCTS, SERVICES, DOCUMENTS AND INFORMATION PRESENTED WOULD NOT BE PROVIDED WITHOUT SUCH LIMITATIONS. NO ADVICE OR INFORMATION, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, OBTAINED BY YOU FROM US THROUGH THE SERVICE OR OTHERWISE SHALL CREATE ANY WARRANTY, REPRESENTATION OR GUARANTEE NOT EXPRESSLY STATED IN THIS AGREEMENT.

ALL RESPONSIBILITY OR LIABILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES CAUSED BY VIRUSES CONTAINED WITHIN THE ELECTRONIC FILE CONTAINING A FORM OR DOCUMENT IS DISCLAIMED.

Limitation of Liability

We and any Affiliated Party shall not be liable for any loss, injury, claim, liability, or damage of any kind resulting in any way from:

any errors in or omissions from the Service or any services or products obtainable therefrom,

the unavailability or interruption of the Service or any features thereof,

your use of the Service,

the content contained on the Website or via the Service, or

any delay or failure in performance beyond the control of a Covered Party.

THE AGGREGATE LIABILITY OF US AND THE AFFILIATED PARTIES IN CONNECTION WITH ANY CLAIM ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THE SERVICE AND/OR THE PRODUCTS, INFORMATION, DOCUMENTS AND SERVICES PROVIDED HEREIN OR HEREBY SHALL NOT EXCEED $100 AND THAT AMOUNT SHALL BE IN LIEU OF ALL OTHER REMEDIES WHICH YOU MAY HAVE AGAINST US AND ANY AFFILIATED PARTY.

Use of Information

We reserve the right, and you authorize us, to the use and assignment of all information regarding Service uses by you and all information provided by you in any manner consistent with our Privacy Policy. All remarks, suggestions, ideas, graphics, or other information communicated by you to us (collectively, a "Submission") will forever be our property. We will not be required to treat any Submission as confidential, and will not be liable for any ideas (including without limitation, product, service or advertising ideas) and will not incur any liability as a result of any similarities that may appear in our future products, services or operations. Without limitation, we will have exclusive ownership of all present and future existing rights to the Submission of every kind and nature everywhere. We will be entitled to use the Submission for any commercial or other purpose whatsoever, without compensation to you or any other person sending the Submission. You acknowledge that you are responsible for whatever material you submit, and you have full responsibility for the message, including its legality, reliability, appropriateness, originality, and copyright.

Third-Party Services

We may allow access to or advertise certain third-party product or service providers ("Merchants") from which you may purchase certain goods or services. You understand that we do not operate or control the products or services offered by Merchants. Merchants are responsible for all aspects of order processing, fulfillment, billing and customer service. We are not a party to the transactions entered into between you and Merchants. You agree that use of or purchase from such Merchants is AT YOUR SOLE RISK AND IS WITHOUT WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND BY US, EXPRESSED, IMPLIED OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WARRANTIES OF TITLE, FITNESS FOR PURPOSE, MERCHANTABILITY OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES ARE WE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES ARISING FROM THE TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN YOU AND MERCHANTS OR FOR ANY INFORMATION APPEARING ON MERCHANT SITES OR ANY OTHER SITE LINKED TO OUR SITE.

Third-Party Merchant Policies

All rules, policies (including privacy policies) and operating procedures of Merchants will apply to you while on any Merchant Sites. We are not responsible for information provided by you to Merchants. We and the Merchants are independent contractors and neither party has authority to make any representations or commitments on behalf of the other.

Privacy Policy

Our Privacy Policy, as it may change from time to time, is a part of this Agreement. You can review the Privacy Policy here.

Copyrights and Copyright Agents

We respect the intellectual property of others, and we ask you to do the same. If you believe that your work has been copied in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please provide our Copyright Agent the following information:

An electronic or physical signature of the person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of the copyright interest;

A description of the copyrighted work that you claim has been infringed;

A description of where the material that you claim is infringing is located on the Service;

Your address, telephone number, and email address;

A statement by you that you have a good faith belief that the disputed use is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; and

A statement by you, made under penalty of perjury, that the above information in your Notice is accurate and that you are the copyright owner or authorized to act on the copyright owner's behalf.

Our Copyright Agent for Notice of claims of copyright infringement on the Website can be reached by directing an e-mail to the Copyright Agent at [email protected].

Information and Press Releases

The Service contains information and press releases about us. We disclaim any duty or obligation to update this information or any press releases. Information about companies other than ours contained in the press release or otherwise, should not be relied upon as being provided or endorsed by us.

Legal Compliance

You agree to comply with all applicable domestic and international laws, statutes, ordinances and regulations regarding your use of the Service and the Content and Materials provided therein.

Miscellaneous

This Agreement shall be treated as though it were executed and performed in Cape Town, South Africa, and shall be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the Republic of South Africa(without regard to conflict of law principles). Any cause of action by you with respect to the Service (and/or any information, Documents, products or services related thereto) must be instituted within one (1) year after the cause of action arose or be forever waived and barred. All actions shall be subject to the limitations set forth in Section 16 and Section 17. The language in this Agreement shall be interpreted as to its fair meaning and not strictly for or against any party. This Agreement and all incorporated agreements and your information may be automatically assigned by us in our sole discretion to a third party in the event of an acquisition, sale or merger. Should any part of this Agreement be held invalid or unenforceable, that portion shall be construed consistent with applicable law and the remaining portions shall remain in full force and effect. To the extent that anything in or associated with the Service is in conflict or inconsistent with this Agreement, this Agreement shall take precedence. Our failure to enforce any provision of this Agreement shall not be deemed a waiver of such provision nor of the right to enforce such provision. Our rights under this Agreement shall survive any termination of this Agreement.

Arbitration

Any legal controversy or legal claim arising out of or relating to this Agreement or our services, excluding legal action taken by us to collect or recover damages for, or obtain any injunction relating to, Service operations, intellectual property, and our services, shall be settled solely by binding arbitration. Any such controversy or claim shall be arbitrated on an individual basis, and shall not be consolidated in any arbitration with any claim or controversy of any other party. The arbitration shall be conducted in Cape Town South Africa, and judgment on the arbitration award may be entered into any court having jurisdiction thereof. Either you or us may seek any interim or preliminary relief from a court of competent jurisdiction in Cape Town, South Africa necessary to protect the rights or property of you and us pending the completion of arbitration. Each party shall bear one-half of the arbitration fees and costs incurred through arbitration.

Tournament Terms

ChessCube will make a best effort both technologically and through tournament management to host tournaments that run smoothly, fairly and correctly, but will not be responsible for any losses incurred through disconnections, bugs, tournament cancellation or early termination. The following procedures and rules will apply to tournaments and tournament games:

ChessCube reserves the right to cancel a tournament if the service becomes unavailable. Tournaments will be cancelled if less than 75% of the rounds (rounded off to the nearest round) have been fully completed. In such cases players who have paid for entry into the tournament will receive a full refund.

ChessCube reserves the right to end a tournament prematurely if the service becomes unavailable. In such cases the results from the last fully completed round will be used to determine the final standings in the tournament. If a tournament is ended in such a way the entry fee will be deducted from players and prizes (if any) will be awarded.

If a player is disconnected or cannot complete his/her game for whatever reason during a round the game will be forfeited (counted as a loss) for that player.

If a player does not play his/her game during a round they will forfeit the game and be removed from subsequent rounds for the tournament. A notification will be displayed which the player will have to accept to re-enter the tournament.

ChessCube is aware that there are currently issues which affect game play and may end the game abruptly in an unexpected manner. We are making every effort to solve this as quickly as possible. If you feel that you have suffered a loss because of this you can report the tournament game for review. Please send the date, tournament name, round number, both player names and what you experienced to [email protected] within 24 hours of the tournament start time (please include all the required information - we will not review incomplete or late requests). We will refund your tournament entry fee if we find that you lost unfairly.

Any player caught cheating (see the Acceptable Use Policy) while a tournament is in progress will immediately be banned from the tournament. If that player is currently involved in a game he/she will forfeit it. Such a player will not receive any refund for entry fees or prizes (if any). However, the previous results of this player against any opponents will stand.

If, after a tournament has been completed, it becomes evident that a player has cheated any prizes awarded to that player will be reclaimed by ChessCube. Such a player may be banned from future tournaments. However, the previous results of this player against any opponents will stand for the tournament in question.

If you suspect a player of cheating please report this immediately to the tournament manager in a private message or email [email protected] (do not make cheat accusations in the tournament chat room). We will refund your tournament entry fee if we find that you played against a cheater and you reported it within 24 hours of the tournament start time.

Every tournament will be run by a Manager. The Manager reserves the right to cancel or change a tournament for whatever reason. However, a best effort will be made to complete all tournaments successfully.

A Manager may change results, redo pairings, pause or resume tournaments or otherwise manually intervene in order to address tournament problems at any time.

The Manager's decisions are final. Players who feel that the Manager has made incorrect or unfair decisions should use the Report Abuse link or contact [email protected]

For tournaments with substantial prizes the final awarding of winners may be delayed for up to 72 hours to allow us to verify the results and prevent abuse.

By accepting any prize you allow us to publish your username and tournament data in any media without further compensation to you.

Tournaments and Cubit wager game refunds

Tournaments and Cubit wager games are still in BETA stage and we're aware that users might experience issues at times. We will refund your Cubits if:

A bug or other problem made you unfairly lose a game, and

The entry fee of the tournament or wagered amount in a Cubit game is more than 100 Cubits.

Cashing out Crowns

Cashout was suspended on January 27, 2012. As announced, users will be able to cashout crowns through February, 2012, with only their crown balance as of January 27, 2012 being considered for cashout. After February 2012, crown balances (whether historical or current) will no longer be eligible for cashout. The following conditions apply for users cashing out through February:

You must withdraw at least 1,000 Crowns from your account. We do this to minimize deposits or promotional funds being withdrawn which would not be fair.

Amounts below 1,000 Crowns will be considered for cashout on a case-by-case basis.

Of the amount being withdrawn, no more than 250 Crowns may be purchased. For example, if you withdraw 1,000 Crowns at least 750 must be won and up to 250 may be purchased.

We will only cash out to the PayPal account you supply us. You are responsible to check that the correct details are submitted when cashing out, as we cannot correct mistakes later.

We will not be responsible for any further support once PayPal has notified you that the payment has been made.

If you do not claim your payment within 30 days of PayPal notification the amount will be transferred back to us and you will forfeit your right to it.

Each withdrawal will incur a processing fee of $5. This is a transaction fee imposed by PayPal and is out of our control. We reserve the right to change the processing fee if it is adjusted by PayPal.

If we have a reasonable suspicion of fraudulent activity on your account, including any breach of these terms and conditions, we reserve the right to withhold payment and suspend your account.